It’s at the heart of every good story. It can be the main character versus nature, or society, or themselves, but often it’s shown through conflict with another character. Recently, I’ve re-immersed myself into the POV of Grace Lightbourne, the impulsive and sometimes outspoken Angel in Training from WINGING IT! Grace seems to end up at odds with so many characters — Archangel Michael, fellow Guardian Aisha, her Dominion-roomie Faith. But, I was writing a scene in the second book where Grace has a dispute with Mercy, and it made me uncomfortable. So, it was time to take a break, and take a walk.

In go the ear buds, on goes Pandora, and then comes this song (which, BTW, I hadn’t heard in a long time.) It reminded me that the conflict with Grace and Mercy can be worked out, and to just go ahead and write the scene.

Tension between people who care about each other is normal and natural. In fact, it’s a lot easy to let things go when you don’t care, right?

In MY WISHFUL THINKING, two best friends, Logan and Emily, must share a genie, which inevitably leads to conflict. In DOLPHIN GIRL Jane has conflict with her mom, but loves her with all her heart. Both of those conflicts made the story stronger and I hope made my readers care more deeply about the outcome. So, having faced my fear of conflict, it’s back to writing the story.